Are you a good person?

There is not a week that goes by that I don't hear the phrase "I'm not that bad, I have never killed anyone, I've never been in prison, I'm not racist, overall I'm a good person."

This seems to be the perspective of many, it was with me at one time. But yet we are sinners and we are born that way. David affirms this in Psalm 51 when he declares: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (vs. 5, ESV).”

Psalm 58 says this of “the wicked,” which we can easily apply to every man, “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies (vs. 3).”


Scripture says a lot more:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. -- Genesis 6:5

The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately sick; who can understand it?
-Jeremiah 17:9

10 as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” --Romans 3:10-18



These verses expose our desperate condition that we are sinners by nature from the day of our birth. Not only are we sinners, but every intent of the thoughts of our hearts is only evil all the time. Our hearts are so desperately wicked that they cannot be known truly by anyone but God.

We would chose our own selfish desires at every turn. We do not do any good; we are lying, deceitful, cursing, violent, blasphemous, people who have no fear of God at all.

So, in light of the biblical texts just sighted. I ask the question again. Are you a good person?

by His Grace Alone,

Bill

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Jonathan Edwards on God Convincing Man of His Sin and Guilt

God makes men consider and be sensible of what sin they are guilty. Before, it may be, they were very regardless of this. They went on sinning, and never reflected upon what they did. [They] never considered or regarded what or how many sins they committed. They saw no cause why they should trouble their minds about it. But when God convinces them, he brings them to reflect upon themselves. He sets their sins in order before their eyes. He brings their old sins to their minds, so that they are fresh in their memory — things which they had almost forgotten. And many things, which they used to regard as light offenses, which were not wont to be a burden to their consciences, nor to appear worthy to be taken notice of, they are now made to reflect upon. Thus they discover of what a multitude of transgressions they have been guilty, which they have heaped up till they are grown up to heaven.

There are some sins especially, of which they have been guilty, which are ever before them, so that they cannot get them out of their minds. Sometimes when men are under conviction, their sins follow them, and haunt them like a specter. God makes them sensible of the sin of their hearts, how corrupt and depraved their hearts are. And there are two ways in which he does this. One is by setting before them the sins of their lives. They are so set in order before them, they appear so many and so aggravated, that they are convinced what a fountain of corruption there is in their hearts. Their sinful natures appear by their sinful lives. There is sin enough, which every man has committed, to convince him, that he is sold under sin, that his heart is full of nothing but corruption, if God by his Spirit leads him rightly to consider it.

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